"Germany will shut all its nuclear reactors by 2022, parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel's government agreed on Monday, in a reaction to Japan's Fukushima disaster that marks a drastic policy reversal.."

Uuuhhh- except Germany is really only switching from being a producer to being a consumer of nuclear energy. They are planning on getting their baseload from reactors in other nations. That might count as phasing out nuclear energy in some political hairspitting exercise, but pratically speaking not much is changing in terms of energy production amounts, just location.

Uuuhhh- except Germany is really only switching from being a producer to being a consumer of nuclear energy. They are planning on getting their baseload from reactors in other nations. That might count as phasing out nuclear energy in some political hairspitting exercise, but pratically speaking not much is changing in terms of energy production amounts, just location.

It protects the long term health of both the German economy and population. The reactors will go into the areas where the slavs live and Japan has shown that if you locate them a 1,000 kilometres away then accidents are not that bad except for the unlucky people living really close.

Germany is once again economically dominating all of Europe. The German bankers and industrialists don't worry about workers in Iberia or eastern Europe or Italy or Greece. In the homeland the workforce has more rights and better jobs and a greener future than the less deserving nations of the region.

More than 100,000 demonstrators took to the streets in 20 cities across Germany on Saturday to call for a rapid end to nuclear power, even as a government-sponsored national commission is expected to recommend that Berlin abolish nuclear energy within a decade....

In Berlin, at least 20,000 protesters marched from city hall to the headquarters of Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, where they called for an immediate end to nuclear power.

Demonstration organizer Uwe Hiksch said an exit from nuclear power within a decade was not acceptable. The environmental organization Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) also called for a quicker shutdown of the country's nuclear plants.

More than 10,000 protesters took to the streets in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state.

"This is our signal to Chancellor Merkel that the energy turnaround finally has to come," said Tim Petzoldt of the Initiative Anti-Atom Bonn....

Currently, only four of Germany's 17 nuclear power plants are operational. Chancellor Merkel ordered eight to be shutdown pending review while five more were shutdown for routine maintenance.

Uuuhhh- except Germany is really only switching from being a producer to being a consumer of nuclear energy. They are planning on getting their baseload from reactors in other nations. That might count as phasing out nuclear energy in some political hairspitting exercise, but pratically speaking not much is changing in terms of energy production amounts, just location.

It protects the long term health of both the German economy and population. The reactors will go into the areas where the slavs live and Japan has shown that if you locate them a 1,000 kilometres away then accidents are not that bad except for the unlucky people living really close.

Germany is once again economically dominating all of Europe. The German bankers and industrialists don't worry about workers in Iberia or eastern Europe or Italy or Greece. In the homeland the workforce has more rights and better jobs and a greener future than the less deserving nations of the region.

(seem to have a problem poting, it keeps kicking me out of the account)

Sure a lot more needs to be done and a lot quicker if we want to maintain a livable planet.

It is difficult to complain about the german s plan to close their nukes when we in Canada enable these messes with our export of tar-oil and uranium.

Sure a lot more needs to be done and a lot quicker if we want to maintain a livable planet.

It is difficult to complain about the german s plan to close their nukes when we in Canada enable these messes with our export of tar-oil and uranium.

Indeed there is a lot to do.

I have no difficulty talking about Germany. That is because I refuse to silent about Canada's tar sands and other examples of environmental degradation. If you don't work to stop it in Canada then complaining about Germany is hypocritical. As long as one decries Canada first then IMO one gets to complain about others as well.

Its not like the people making the important decisions on industrial strategy were actually elected by citizens, in either country.

An Italian vote on nuclear energy coming up June 12 could well have a disastrous impact on the whole of Europe. Berlusconi and the Italian media are hoping that no-one has noticed.

Mr. Berlusconi's coalition has suffered a major hit in the recent administrative elections, but it is yet too early to celebrate as a crucial vote for the future of Italy (and indeed Europe) is due on June 12. On that date, Italians will have the chance to vote on nuclear energy development and the ongoing privatization of water, in a national referendum. The nuclear alternative had already been rejected in a similar referendum, 24 years ago. But since referendums in Italy are not binding for succeeding administrations, the ruling political parties have long endorsed a return to the risky energy source in the second most earthquake prone country in Europe.

The Italian constitution requires the collection of more than 500,000 signatures of adult citizens to call a referendum. This time, the organizers had turned in a record 1.4 million signatures long before the Fukushima disaster highlighted the fundamental risks associated with nuclear energy. While Italians are strongly in favour of the referendum, two factors are prone to undermine its success: first, in order to be legally binding and valid, more than 50 percent of the Italian population have to participate and, secondly, if approved, referendums are not binding for successor governments....

As many parts of the Northern hemisphere continue to experience an unprecedented heat-wave, with near-record temperatures in Spain and Greece this weekend, the heat-wave is having an effect on the continent’s nuclear reactors.

quote:

The French energy company, EDF has halted four nuclear reactors at three different power plants in France due to the heat, a spokesman confirmed yesterday.

The force of the closure was the high temperatures registered in the Rhone and Rhine rivers, which are used to cool the nuclear reactors, according to Reuters.

But these are not the only nuclear reactors suffering in the heat. Due to increased sea temperatures in Nordic region, Reuters is also reporting that the heat “has forced some nuclear reactors to curb power output or shut down altogether, with more expected to follow suit.”

One of those plants struggling is Vattenfall’s Ringhal’s plant in Sweden. The company, which operates seven reactors in Sweden, shut a 900 megawatt PWR unit – one of the four located at its Ringhals plant – earlier this month, as water temperatures exceeded 25 degrees Celsius, according to Reuters.

The short-term nuclear shut downs raise numerous issues.

Vegard Willumsen, section manager at Norway’s energy regulator NVE, told Reuters. “If nuclear reactors in the Nordics shut down or reduce power due to the heatwave, it could also put pressure on the supply and consequently on the Nordic power prices.”

But more importantly, there is an obvious question that needs answering. For the last decade the nuclear industry has been telling us it is the solution to climate change. But if their reactors can’t work in our rapidly warming world, are we just building a whole new generation of expensive white elephants?